I do not have many super-close Catholic friends that really practice their faith. My son was just born last week and I’m having some anxiety on how to choose good Godparents. There are some couples I know from our parish which I respect greatly and that I’m sure would be great Godparents, but I would not describe these people as very close to our family at this point. Do you have any advice on how to choose Godparents in this situation? Given that we need to get our child baptised as quickly as possible this is obviously a time-sensitive issue.

I do not have many super-close Catholic friends that really practice their faith. My son was just born last week and I’m having some anxiety on how to choose good Godparents. There are some couples I know from our parish which I respect greatly and that I’m sure would be great Godparents, but I would not describe these people as very close to our family at this point. Do you have any advice on how to choose Godparents in this situation? Given that we need to get our child baptised as quickly as possible this is obviously a time-sensitive issue.

You do not require two sponsors. You only need one. Why not ask a priest to be the sponsor. That is permitted.

. There are some couples I know from our parish which I respect greatly and that I’m sure would be great Godparents, but I would not describe these people as very close to our family at this point.

That actually happened to us. A couple in our parish asked my wife and I to be their son’s Godparents. They were not close friends, more of a “Say ‘hi’ and chat a little bit after Mass” type relationship.

But they said that they wanted good Catholics as Godparents and they liked what they saw in us.

We said ‘yes’. What happened was it gave all of us a great contact point and we became very close friends over the years. She’s my wife’s best friend now and our kids play together regularly.